Streamlining room scheduling and managing library events using LibCal

Libraries are clearly in a state of transition, and library space is also being shaped by new librarian roles. As illustrated in this year's building project column, space is rapidly being redefined in new and exciting ways. In some cases, library space is being transformed into community spaces such as cafes, galleries, and exhibit areas; health sciences libraries are quickly catching up to public and academic libraries that have pioneered these types of facilities and services. In others, library space is being used to solidify partnerships between library staff and other academic personnel collectively working on projects, grants, or other strategic alliances. In these cases, space is leveraged to the library's advantage by inviting in partners who share similar goals and objectives. Sharing space allows experts from different backgrounds and disciplines to share their knowledge and develop collaborative projects. Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) units and innovation centers are prime examples of these expert partnerships. Locating library staff adjacent to these experts has enabled them to share their knowledge and contribute to the shared projects as well. And finally, libraries can be spaces for discovery and creation of new knowledge in a much broader sense. They can be part of the larger learning or teaching center, providing study areas, test centers, laboratories, simulation centers, group collaboration facilities, and research evidence. Academic health sciences librarians and libraries need to remain agile as well as responsive to the needs of their organizations; for only then will they remain relevant. Four academic health sciences libraries exemplify the transformations that are underway. The University of Colorado is a fine example of a library that has created community space. They opened their library to the general community by establishing an art gallery for exhibits of works by local and visiting artists. The University of Utah invited their CTSA personnel into the library space to better support their researchers. The University of Alabama at Birmingham has an exciting new innovation center that encourages conversations about difficult or thorny topics. Their Edge of Chaos provides a place where all types of university personnel can collaborate to reach creative solutions to issues. All three descriptions of the resulting space supporting new roles for librarians can serve as models for how housing nonlibrary projects in library space can meet with success. Finally, the University of Arizona has strategically placed its new Phoenix library in a health sciences education building, next to an educational teaching lab, clinical education suites, and a simulation center. Their success in fully integrating their new library into a health education building provides a model of how a primarily electronic library collection complemented with librarian expertise can support the information needs of a new campus. Connecting community to campus through gallery space Submitted by Melissa De Santis, MLIS, AHIP, and Gerald J. Perry, MLS, AHIP; Health Sciences Library, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO

<p>Electronic resources (ERs) in academic libraries have become a global phenomenon, and as libraries rely more on these resources managing them effectively becomes crucial. Electronic resource management (ERM) has consequently become a core function which many academic libraries around the globe appear to find challenging to implement effectively. Challenges of managing ERs are particularly pronounced in developing countries such as Ghana where the introduction of ICTs has typically been characterised by inadequate resources. Although there is an extensive literature on both the management and use of ERs, little research has studied how the two aspects could affect each other. Ineffective management of ERs could negatively affect their use; likewise, low usage of ERs could negatively impact on the management of these resources. Studying the concepts of management and usage of ERs together would result in better recommendations to inform practice and eliminate the challenges. In addition, the literature on the management of ERs is predominantly centred around libraries in the developed country context. Moreover, academic libraries in Ghana do not appear to be effective in managing ERs. There is a lack of understanding on how academic libraries in Ghana are managing ERs, and the ways in which this is affecting their usage and vice-versa. The study therefore fills the gaps by exploring the connection between the management and usage of ERs in academic libraries in a developing country context. Placed within a post-positivist worldview, this mixed-methods research employed a multiple case study approach, involving two public and two private universities in Ghana. Stakeholders included in the study were library staff, faculty, students, and consortium executives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with library staff and members of the governing council of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) concurrently with surveys of faculty and postgraduate students of the institutions investigated. These were supported by document analysis. To guide data collection and analysis, the Techniques for Electronic Resource Management (TERMS) framework (Emery & Stone, 2013), and an initial conceptual model of factors developed using constructs from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis & Davis 2003) and the literature underpinned the study. The interview findings revealed inadequate planning for ERs in the case institutions owing to operational challenges including inadequate policies for ERs, inadequate funding, and understaffing. Although efforts were being made to follow standard procedures some components of ER workflow were absent in both public and private case libraries, whereas other aspects of the workflow were responsibilities of parties external to the libraries. The document analysis showed that, the total average completeness of collection development policies of case libraries was 25% which indicated the lack of vital elements in these policies. The survey findings showed a generally low awareness and usage of ERs by faculty and students due to inadequate promotional efforts by the case libraries, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of relevant content. Consequently, respondents had a negative perception on the usefulness of the ERs which may have caused the observed low usage. The study also found three main factors as affecting the management and usage of ERs in academic libraries in Ghana which were governmental, organisational and individual factors. Governmental factors such as regulations on staffing, inadequate funding, and nationwide rationing of electricity supply were hindrances. At the organisational level, an enabler was collaboration with stakeholders, whereas obstacles included inadequate policies, staffing challenges, resource-related factors, lack of investment for sustainability, centralised management structure, low institutional commitment, poor communication, and low usage of ERs. Enabling individual factors consisted of religious beliefs, social influence, oral information, and interest in IT. Hindering individual factors comprised negative effects of oral information, resistance to change, fear of speaking against authority, reluctance to submit contents to institutional repository, negative perception on the ERs and lack of time. The findings also established various ways in which the management and usage of ERs affected each other. Low user input in the selection of ERs, access related challenges, inadequate publicity, training, and evaluation of ERs negatively affected the usage of ERs. However, case libraries that occasionally allowed users to schedule training sessions observed increased attendance to training with a corresponding increase in ER usage, which provided a basis for institutional budgetary support. On the other hand, failure of users to attend training programmes after signing up, low referral of students to the ERs by faculty and low usage of ERs of the library negatively affected ERM particularly in the areas of budgeting for ER subscription and sustainability. However, faculty and students facilitated the management of ERs of the library in terms of creating awareness of the ERs among their colleagues and peers, and also accessing the resources using mobile devices to supplement the library’s inadequate computers. The TERMS framework and initial conceptual model of factors were revised based on the findings. The study adds to the Library and Information Science research relevant to the understanding of the management and usage of ERs, factors affecting both concepts and how these two concepts are related. In addition, the study contributes to practice by recommending strategies for effective ERM to encourage increased usage of ERs. It is also hoped that academic libraries in other developing countries can draw lessons from the findings. The study also provides advanced countries with a deeper insight to guide them in providing support to developing countries. The findings also have implications for policy and decision makers in terms of prioritisation and allocation of resources for effective ERM and usage in academic libraries as contemporary issues are revealed. Keywords: Academic institutions, Academic libraries, Electronic resources, Electronic resources in Africa, Electronic resource management, Electronic resource usage</p>

The aim of the study was to investigate customer care services and strategies in academic libraries in tertiary institutions in KwaZulu-Natal. The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect data from academic staff, students and library staff. The population targeted was sampled using a stratified random sampling technique. Three hundred and eighty six (386) questionnaires were distributed to academic staff and students (library users/customers), and interviews were conducted with fifteen (15) library management, unit and/or committee responsible for customer care. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was used to analyze quantitative data collected from the library users/ customers, and Microsoft Excel was used to analyze data collected from the library staff of the five academic libraries studied. The libraries revealed by the users to have customer care policies in place were Mangosuthu Technikon and the Durban Institute of Technology. In contrast the University of Durban Westville has no customer care policies while at the University of Zululand, there is no difference between those aware and unaware. Interviews with the library staff of the five academic libraries revealed that only two (Mangosuthu Technikon and the University of Natal) have a unit/person responsible for customer care. Furthermore, the results revealed that academic libraries do not have proper methods and strategies for conducting customer care. The findings revealed that library users/customers are generally satisfied with knowledge resources offered to them by their libraries. Subsequently, the study recommends that academic libraries incorporate a unit/person or committee responsible for customer care. Library staff should also be given regular training regarding customer care.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore stress among reference library staff in academic and public libraries in one of the European countries. The study has been conducted to ascertain whether members of the reference staff undergo stress, whether they consider the reference work stressful, how often they are exposed to stress, which situations are most stressful and how they cope with stress in the workplace and in their private lives.Design/methodology/approachA semi-structured interview is applied as a data collection technique so that interviewees are able to express their opinions on stress and to describe stress as an individual experience. A convenience sample of members of the reference library staff in ten academic and ten public libraries is prepared.FindingsThe reference library staff in the academic and public libraries is aware of stress causing damage to one’s health and work performance. The reference staff in the public libraries is more frequently exposed to stress than those in the academic libraries. The users are considered the main stressor owing to their complex reference questions, vague information needs and requests, wanting information and materials immediately, not following the library rules, etc.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is small and not representative, including only two types of libraries. The research may serve as a preliminary study, as it offers insights into the work-related stress among the reference staff in the academic and public libraries.Originality/valueThis is the first research on the stress of the reference library staff in the academic and public libraries in the country. It contributes to the understanding of the work-related stress in the libraries. Identifying stressful situations can help the reference staff and employers take appropriate strategies to cope with stress.

This case study from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University Libraries, which has one main library, three branches, and more than 110 staff, illustrates one approach to using new technologies as additional methods for internal communication. At large academic libraries, communication within the organization can be challenging. The potential that Web 2.0 tools have to increase opportunities for communication and collaboration is one reason internal staff wiki and blogs were implemented at the University Libraries. The staff wiki is predominantly used to archive committee meeting minutes, policies and procedures, and departmental information, while blogs are used mainly for news items and departmental updates. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, library staff were surveyed to assess the changes in communication after the implementation of blogs and an internal wiki. The authors theorized that Web 2.0 technologies would reduce barriers and improve communication. Results indicated an overall improvement in internal staff communication after the implementation of the staff wiki; however, no change was noted with blogs. Findings also showed several challenges for the future, including the need for additional training with the tools and a desire for more regular postings to the blogs. A major test for the future is ensuring that these new Web 2.0 technologies become more integrated into staff workflows so the technologies will be more readily adopted by library staff as additional communication channels.

PurposeThe key to a successful library development and fundraising program is a synergistic relationship between development professionals and librarians. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe paper focuses on the partnership in achieving the library mission and its fundraising goals.FindingsThe study finds that raising funds for any academic library requires commitment and leadership of the library dean and the development officer. With library faculty and staff members' input, the library development team must work together in writing a compelling case statement that has high dramatic and emotional impact on the mission of the library and the institution.Originality/valueThe paper identifies three key elements that library faculty and staff can provide to support any successful library development program.

University libraries live and change through interaction with the scientific community or without essential interaction they fail to evolve and grow. This article studies the effects of collaboration between professors and librarians on the strategic development of libraries, especially during times of crisis. This study was conducted at the University of Helsinki (established in 1640). It is based mostly on historical sources, such as the annual reports of the university and faculties, and documents outlining plans and decisions. The first crisis phase took place in the 1820s, when a fire destroyed academic collections and facilities and the university was relocated from Turku to Helsinki. A conflict arose between the contemporary needs of the scientific community and the need for a main library to replace the collections. Another upheaval was caused by the growing need for services for the post-war baby boomer generation. Nationwide library planning aimed for the creation of a separate national library and for merging faculty libraries with the main library. The third crisis phase involved the Finnish economic crisis of the 1990s and the digital revolution that continued into the 2000s. Solutions were sought through cooperation between the academic leadership, library management and personnel. The crisis led to the organisation of library services into two large entities. The success of extensive changes in academic libraries is one of the key questions in management. The crisis periods under examination show that significant reforms are only possible through close partnerships between the library, the research community and academic decision-makers.

We open this second issue of the year in what has become a traditional way, with an extensive article on libraries in the host country for this year’s World Library and Information Congress (WLIC), to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 10–15 August. In her paper, ‘Swedish libraries: An overview’, Barbro Thomas – now retired, but with a distinguished professional career which included serving as a member of numerous professional boards and committees in Sweden and in IFLA – gives us a very readable overview of the Swedish library landscape. Her paper describes the background to public library development, the development of university and university college libraries and library legislation, and provides an overview of the national policy on literature and the remuneration system for Swedish writers, translators and illustrators. The paper concludes with a description of the new national structure with the National Library as the supervising authority for both academic and public libraries and suggests that cooperation between public and research libraries will deepen in future. The second paper in this issue is a revised translation of a paper presented at the 2009 WLIC in Milan, by Margarita Perez Pulido, a professor in the Faculty of Library and Information Science and a Director of the Documentation Service at the University of Extremadura in Spain, where she teaches planning and evaluation of information systems and professional ethics. Her paper, ‘Programs promoting reading in Spanish prisons’, focuses on a series of studies and findings that document the effectiveness of reading and writing as a tool for the rehabilitation of disadvantaged population groups, including prisoners. The paper provides an analysis of the current situation in Spain which identifies examples of best practices, analyzes methodologies, and examines the extent of innovation demonstrated by these programs within the unique prison environment, as well as in the context of the Spanish cultural and legal framework. Innovative services of a different kind are the subject of the next paper, ‘Innovative services for libraries through the Virtual Reading Rooms of the Digital Dissertation Library, Russian State Library’, by Nina Avdeeva, Head of the Department of Support of Access to Digital Resources of the Russian State Library, Head Manager of the Digital Dissertation Library (DDL) project of the Russian State Library and Chief Developer of the DDL website. The paper describes how the Russian State Library started the DDL in 2003 to ensure that its valuable collection of dissertations was safely kept and widely accessible. Virtual Reading Rooms, where readers can access the resources of the DDL, have been set up in various libraries in Russia and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Within the framework of the DDL, the Open Digital Dissertation Library (ODDL) allows authors to place their dissertations or abstracts on open access at the DDL website. The Russian State Library continues to work on the development of the DDL in order to form a common information zone for researchers. Another aspect of ‘virtuality’ is the subject of a revised version of another Milan WLIC paper, ‘Virtual reunification as the future of ‘codices dispersi’: Practices and standards developed by e-codices – Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland’, by Anne Marie Austenfeld, a research associate with the Library which is a joint project of the University of Fribourg Medieval Institute and the Abbey Library of St. Gall. Her paper describes how the advent of the online digital library has made possible the virtual reunification of valuable medieval and early modern manuscripts – known as ‘codices dispersi’ – which are physically dispersed in various library collections. The e-codices website of the Virtual Manuscript Library aims to make complete digital images of dispersed materials accessible to scholars as an identifiable collection or unit, provide a context for serious study, and offer participating owner libraries the I F L A

Purpose – Ranganathan’s Laws of Library Science and continued refinements place identification of patron’s needs and connection of those needs to library services of primary importance in libraries. Identifying and developing personas or user group descriptions helps to identify the unique nature of library patrons. Personas help librarians identify or create specific services for each patron persona. Understanding each library persona allows the library faculty and staff to prepare and to plan service delivery. The purpose of this paper is to develop personas for undergraduate students followed by the identification and development of personas for graduate students and faculty. Design/methodology/approach – The identification and development of undergraduate patron personas engaged communications students, as part of their course work, to use a review of previous studies to develop theories of library patron personas. Each of the three groups within the communications class verified their initial persona theories using surveys, focus groups, interviews, observations and ethnographic methods. All personas from each group was further developed and refined into a final list and description of ten library personas. A principal components analysis helped to provide interconnections between the personas and estimate the percent of patrons each persona comprised. Findings – The study identified ten personas (user groups) who use a wide variety of library services. Descriptions of personas enabled library faculty and staff to identify personas accessing their services, to further develop and refine current services and to create new services to meet the needs of patrons. A principle components analysis further facilitated the understanding of interrelations between the personas based on persona use of library services. Personas that had common needs or use patterns were grouped together to further understanding of patrons use patterns and needs. While an attempt was made to determine the percent of total patrons each persona was, evidence was found that indicated the fluid nature of personas in regards to library services. That is, as the patron needs shifted, so did their persona. Patrons moved from one persona to another to meet their shifting needs as the academic semester proceeded. Practical implications – Personas have several practical implications for librarians. First, they enable librarians to reflect on provided services in terms of personas. This reflection enables library services to be refined to meet patron needs. Second, the interconnection between personas enables librarians to market other services. As a patron uses one service, librarians can point out related services that may be of interest or help. This is particularly important for new student orientation tours. Finally, matching the personas with other library trends and patterns assists librarians with the development of the library as a space suited to meet the needs of its patrons. Originality/value – While the use of personas is common in communications, marketing and business, their development and use in academic libraries is quite unique. They become quite useful in associating library services to the patrons that use them. Strategic planning also uses personas as services are upgraded and improved or new services are created to meet more persona needs.

As academic libraries explore their connection to student success and how library staff spend their time, it is important to understand how research consultations influence academic achievement. Several studies have found correlations between various measures of library use and grade point averages (GPAs), but only limited research has investigated the impact on student success of lengthy research consultations with a librarian. This exploratory study attempted to compare consultation users with the overall student body. Due to a small sample size, only descriptive statistics were obtained. Thus, this study also focuses on the methodological challenges of conducting student success studies in academic libraries, including the concerns associated with learning analytics, participant recruitment, sampling, and buy-in from library faculty and staff.

Purpose-the aim of the study was to examine transformations in academic library spaces in Ghana Design/Methodology/approach-the quantitative approach was adopted for this study. Data was collected using Google Forms. A total of 98 librarians from five academic libraries in Ghana representing less than 10% of all librarians in academic libraries in Ghana. Data collected was analysed using the R 4. 0 programming Software and presented using charts and tables. Findings- Eighty-one percent (81%) of the participants agreed that their libraries were moving from ‘book-centered’ to ‘technology supported and learning centered’ libraries engineered by emerging technologies and the changing demand of academic library users. Again, it was revealed that librarians had moderate to low skills in providing advanced technological support to users in creating, capturing, editing, and sharing multimedia (video, audio, text, images) for their research, teaching, and learning purposes. Finally, results from the multinomial regression analysis with p values showed that availability of IT utilities, usability and skills of librarians were significant revealing that they have effects on the levels of library space transformation. Practical implications- The capabilities of librarians should be improved form undertaking basic computing task to providing advanced support to their users. Stakeholder and academic library management should encourage their young librarian to further their education and engage in continuous professional development programmes. Libraries should develop strategies to secure the necessary funding to implement IT facilities. Originality-The study used quantitative methods to study transformations in academic library spaces, a grey researched area in Ghana.

Makerspaces and maker-centered learning have surged in popularity in higher education and particularly academic libraries in recent years, following trends that initially emerged in primary and secondary education and public libraries. As academic libraries develop services around maker activities and technologies, many case studies have emerged to share examples, best practices, and lessons learned from these endeavours. The purpose of this literature review is to summarise the information from the available case studies to answer the following research questions: How are academic libraries implementing makerspaces? What can we learn from case studies of academic library makerspaces? What are the prevailing gaps in the published literature on academic library makerspaces? The results of this review of case studies will be a guide for library staff who wish to implement makerspaces in their libraries, and will also serve to identify avenues for future research and scholarship on creative spaces in academic libraries.

This study investigated the perceived influence of library automation on the job performance of library staff in academic libraries in Benue State, Nigeria.Two specific objectives with corresponding research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.The study adopted a survey research design.The target population for this study was 241 library staff made up of librarians and library staff in the three university libraries in Benue State.Since the population was not large, the study made use of all the 241 library staff in the three universities.The instrument for data collection was a self-developed structured questionnaire titled "Library Automation and Job Performance Questionnaire" (LAJPQ).Data collected was analyzed using Means and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions and Chi-Square Statistic to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.Findings of the study revealed that, surveillance security camera and OPAC have perceived positive influence on the job performance of library staff of academic libraries in Benue State.The study concluded that, automation of library operations in academic libraries in Benue State has greatly enhanced the job performance of library staff.Recommendations were made among others that, academic libraries yet to acquire surveillance security camera to monitor theft and library operation should take drastic efforts in doing so.With such development, workload on library staff will be greatly reduced and thus enhance their job performance.

Academic libraries are now enduring a substantial shift, which is influenced by the advancement of information technology (IT) that has drastically changed the operating system of academic libraries. The changes have impacted significantly on the skills and competencies required of library staff. This chapter shed light on the background of modern academic libraries, the IT tools used by various academic libraries (for both remote clients and library staff) around the world to provide and access information resources and/or library and information services (LIS) to meet the information needs of remote clients. IT is becoming a tool in modern academic libraries designed to facilitate library operations to meet the information needs of academic library clients. In light of this, library staff is obliged to be equipped with IT skills and competencies to assist the institution to achieve its objectives by supporting teaching, learning, and research.

Libraries are taking a quint essential position in accumulating and disseminating fact offerings via librarywebsites. The websites portray the library collection, library services, social networking sites, and web 2.0 tools used in the libraries. This study aims to evaluate the seventeen library website features of the Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area (CPEPA) universities by identifying them through previous literature and consulting the checklist. Individual websites of the CPEPA Universities are consulted for the study. It helps users collect more information about those institutions. It significantly corresponds with the aspects of website assessment on the service, innovative solutions, multi-media options, web 2.0, e-resources and e-databases and platforms provided for easy information retrieval by their users and useful social networking plug-ins. The study reveals that there are seventeen Universities under the CPEPA scheme, the library websites mention about its mission, and vision statement. Sixteen out of seventeen universities provide information on library rules, library staff, library sections, and important web links, working hours & holiday lists. Most of the libraries have independent library website which is linked with University URL. All library websites except Jai Narain Vyas University provide e-journal and e-book links directly on the website. The libraries don’t have a uniform library collection. Only 15 universities reflect the information of LMS and institutional repository details. Only Devi Ahilya University and Himachal Pradesh University libraries depict materials for blind users. Annamalai University and Guru Nanak Dev University libraries have coins in their collection. Lending, Inter-library loan, SDI and CAS, reference service and web 2.0 services are most common services provided by all the libraries. Seven university websites have bi-lingual interfaces. Only 6 universities provide keyword search facilities. Online book reservation facility is available only in University of Allahabad library. The study concludes that well designed library websites are very essential for today’s digital environment and for enabling a 24*7 access to library resources. All the libraries under CPEPA Universities have not yet developed their websites full-fledged and needs more to be more comprehensive.